Lightsquared is currently fighting the congress, the Pentagon, the airline industry, John Deere and other farm equipment suppliers, Garmin, Magellan and a few other large corporations. In addition AT&T and Verizon are both fighting the system since they would sell the signals to other companies
.
The latest testing by the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Systems Engineering found that 69 out of 92 devices experienced problems within less than a half mile from a Lightsquared test facility.
Leaving AT&T and Verizon out of the equation due to they don’t like competition, it is not good, especially if you are flying a plane with GPS signals, not fun if you are in a car/truck and a pain in the arse if you are a farmer. And not to forget Android phones’ GPS devices. (I understand within a half mile sounds pretty limited, but consider how many antennas will be across the country, and how the problems will multiply, if they get approval.
I’m in SAR and GPS signals as accurate as possible, can save a life, and there are a lot of small emergency GPS devices being released just to save lives; not counting services such as Onstar. So, I am prejudiced on this matter. And I’m lazy; prefer the chopper to go right to the person vs. having to fly around for an hour trying to locate the source of an emergency signal.
In addition it is stated that their financials show if no huge money infusion by the2nd quarter 2012, they will be gone. This could greatly hurt Sprint. Lightsquared has a deal with Sprint in that they will pay Sprint 9 billion in cash and credits over a 11 year period to build a 4G LTE network using Lightsquared. And Sprint, which has been losing money faster than a politician loses their morals (e.g. 850 million lost for 2nd quarter 2011) needs Lightsquared (does Sprint have money to create their own LTE nationwide network?). In addition, even if they get approval, it would take years to build this network for Sprint and other suppliers.
Only thing they really have going for them is the fact the owner, Philip Falcone, is buddies with Mr. B. Obama.
If they can get a system up and running that does NOT interfere with GPS signals then it would be good for the cell phone industry and provide some more needed competition to AT&T and Verizon...but there can be NO interference with GPS signals. (Just my opinion.)